Staten Island Landfill Search Bob Brody and Cory “I took your "Disaster Search for the First Responder " seminar and want to thank you for all you taught us. It was most valuable this Sept at the WTC and Stanton Island. My black lab, Cory, made me very proud and did a great job! “ Bob Brody belongs to the Brighton Volunteer Ambulance Team in Rochester, NY. Bob, his black lab Cory, and assistants Allison Venuti and Tom Walters responded to the World Trade Center terrorist attach at the request of Rescue International, on behalf of New York City OEP. Their assignment was to assist in the recovery efforts. They worked September 25-26. The team arrived early Tuesday morning and briefly worked the rubble at Ground Zero to acclimate the dog to the odors in the area in preparation for the next 2 days of searches. She adapted immediately with no sign of apprehension or problems working, even off lead. Brody continues, “On Tuesday, September 25, we reported to Fresh Kills Landfill at 0900. After checking in, I was paired with another dog handler and his assistant to learn the search technique and reporting procedures. It was suggested that we do a medium paced walk, searching through the rubble. The objective of the search was to locate the black box, people’s ID and body parts. When a piece of suspected cadaver was found, it was placed in a bucket and tagged, indicating which dog located it, and was sent for DNA testing. The content, size and shape of the search material was very inconsistent. There was construction material, office equipment, parts of cars, trucks and emergency equipment, clothing, purses, ID’s, food, baby toys, garbage and body parts. The material to be searched was first dropped through a separator which kept out pieces wider than 10” and longer than 5 feet. It was then spread out by front end loaders as they backed up in 7 rows. Each row was about 8 feet wide and 100 yards long. The odor was the same as at Ground Zero. It had a strong acrid smell of fire and burnt steel. On occasion we would catch a cadaver odor. To our amazement here were no flies or maggots. When we found human remains, mostly tissue, they were covered with a black powder which disguised them and held in the scent. This covering was a combination of everything at the disaster site that was pulverized and burned. Rain made the human remains look more like slabs of mud. If it were not for the dog alerting on them, we would have walked right by. They did not emit an odor until the surface coating was broken. After the material was searched by the police personnel and dogs, it was bull dozed to the far end and removed. This process was repeated over and over again, 24 hours a day. We worked Cory for 30-minute periods, then took a 1 1/2 hour break. All dogs were rotated in and out to give them a rest. Working Cory on a 10-foot lead quickly became cumbersome because the lead would get tangled on material or around the investigators searching the rubble. We switched to our “off lead” techniques, using hand signals and a whistle when needed. All of the training paid off during those 2 days. We were able to move through the rows at a good pace and Cory could work scent cones at her pace. Cory’s alert was different from what I was used to seeing. It was a lick, and sometimes a head snap just before. She had to be within 12 inches of the cadaver parts to detect them. There were a few parts that had been broken open in the separating process that Cory alerted on from about 10 feet down wind. All of the cadaver odors there did not seem to confuse the dogs. There was always a slight breeze which helped keep the scent going in one direction. We worked both up and down wind on the rows. That technique didn't seem to affect her detection abilities. She also alerted on the bulldozer and the separators because there was a great deal of cadaver scent on them. Cory located parts as small as pieces of vertebrae. We found approximately 20 human parts in the 2 days. Allison and Tom were fabulous assets during the search. While one was assisting me the other was working with another dog team. We all felt honored to be able to assist in bringing closure to the families of those who died as a result of the terrorist attack. It was a very emotional experience mixed with many highs and lows.

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